One of the Family
by hannahtranter16
Summary: A week after waking up, Leo is a bit down in the dumps with his injury still inhibiting his activities. Needing a distraction while his brothers train, Casey has him help out with the truck and tries to cheer him up. Maybe this is just the thing to help them learn more about each other and Casey realises that he really has become one of the family.


**Ok, so here we have another one shot for TMNT! :) Again it's set in Season 3, seems to be my favourite time to write for the turtles, and this time it focuses on the friendship between Leo and Casey. I'd like to give a shout out to Sairey13 who gave me the idea to do a brotherly bonding type fic between Leo and Casey :) **

**It's my first time writing for Casey and I'm not entirely sure I got his personality spot on, particularly his speech, but I tried my best :) If anyone has any suggestions for me about how to write for Casey then please let me know for the future :) **

**Also I didn't have a better title idea, but I think it fits :) I think Casey is starting to be seen as part of their little family, so this is about him comforting Leo. It's set before Big Bro Time as in there I said that Leo had stopped blaming himself for the invasion, at least as much as you'd get him to stop! And here he still is so, yeah :) **

* * *

It had only been a week since waking up that Leo started to feel incredibly frustrated with both his condition and the progress he was making towards a full recovery. It didn't help that his younger brothers kept skirting around him, acting as though he was made of glass and that any small movement he made could lead to disaster. While he understood why he wasn't allowed to start training yet, even though that made him all the more cranky, he was capable of doing some things for himself.

Leo sighed as prepared himself for the difficult task of standing up. He was determined this time that he would do it unassisted and asserted this to the two brothers currently in front of him.

"Aw c'mon Leo, you don't have to be embarrassed," the youngest of the brothers said. It was an innocent enough thing to say, but it only made the eldest's cheeks flush as indeed he was embarrassed to be so reliant on everyone for most things.

Raph was quick to defuse the situation, "Just let 'im try Mikey," the red banded turtle was just as concerned for the eldest as the youngest was, but knew Leo well enough to know that he would have to learn some lessons the hard way. Every time Leo had been ill when they were younger he would wait until he could hardly stand from dizziness or was in such severe pain that he couldn't stand it any longer before seeking help from doctor Donnie. Of course this was assuming that one of them hadn't spotted it first and forced the eldest to take it easy.

"Thank you," Leo replied hotly when the two finally stepped out of his way, though he noted not so far they couldn't catch him should he fail.

Grabbing his cane from the side of the sofa, the blue banded turtle slowly put his weight on his good leg and used the hand not gripping the cane to brace himself on the sofa, using it as leverage to lift himself up. He hopped once to steady himself and then limped away from the sofa, a satisfied smile adorning his face.

"There see," It wasn't him being smug at the fact that he proved his brothers wrong, he would only admit to himself that he did feel some smugness at this fact. If anything he felt like a little child desperate to show his achievement.

Mikey giggled at Leo, but let him be, satisfied that he would be okay for now. Raph smiled proudly, giving the eldest a gentle pat on the back, and went to open the door for him. It was time for the boys to start their morning training, though it was nearly afternoon by the time they remembered to get round to it.

They'd all slept in that morning, having had no one to encourage them to get up early enough for training to be called morning training. Normally Leo or Sensei would make sure that they got up for training, but since awakening, the eldest found himself out of sorts with his body, feeling tired during the day even though he'd slept that night. Donnie put it down to his body reacting to sudden energy expansion, and admittedly the blue banded turtle did tend to push himself as far as he could.

Leo watched mournfully as his two younger brothers started rough housing before realising that they were missing one. Donnie had retreated to the barn after breakfast with Casey and the two of them were probably still in there.

Slowly but steadily, Leo made his way over to the barn, pushing the ajar door open fully with his free hand. Peeking inside the eldest saw two figures hunched over different projects. There appeared to be some form of aggressive banter going between the two that Leo couldn't help but smile about. They frustrated each other sometimes, particularly when it came to a certain red-headed teen, but deep down they did have some level of friendship and comradery, however deeply buried.

Knowing exactly what kind of projects his younger brother worked on, Leo thought it best to get their attention from a distance. He'd never seen Casey work on a car before, but he had, on more than one occasion, seen Donnie work on the Shellraiser, and that ended with him banging his head on the metal of the undercarriage. Funny as it was, he didn't want either occupant to have a headache.

Firmly clearing his throat, the eldest watched their reactions to the sudden intrusion. Casey did indeed bang his head on the bonnet of the truck he was working on, yelping in surprise. Donnie fared better, being used to his eldest brother's visits, and managed to catch the vial he was working with before it smashed on the floor.

"Dang Leo, I know you're a ninja and all but that was really quiet," Said turtle couldn't help but smirk internally at the teen's exclamation, elated that not all of his skills were hampered by his injury.

"What's up Leo?" His brother asked, placing the vial back on the desk securing and swivelling around in his chair.

"Time for training," Leo explained, "Raph and Mikey are already out there,"

"Oh my, I forgot all about it!" With that reminder, Donnie grabbed his Bö staff and rushed out of the barn, stopping briefly when he saw his brother try to follow him, "You are not training with us yet Leo," The eldest gave an uncharacteristic pout, but nodded when brown eyes glared at him. They didn't trust him to watch yet. Last time he did he tried to join in, which did not end well.

"Why don't you give me a hand Leo?" The turtle felt confused at first, since Don was the only one who knew anything about machines, until he realised that Casey was trying to keep him distracted and take his mind off training.

"Sure," he limped over to where Casey was, the teen quickly grabbing Donnie's now empty chair for him to sit on when he needed to, and started to examine the engine. He had no idea how it worked or what to do, but it was nice of Casey to give him an escape, the least he could do was act interested.

At first they started talking about the truck, Leo asking questions about what the teenage boy was doing to it and the plans he had with Don to improve it, but Casey could tell that Leo wasn't really all that interested.

"Hand me a wrench?" Casey asked casually. He mentally slapped himself when he realised that the toolbox was on the desk and Leo was by the car. When he turned around however, he watched the blue banded turtle use his good leg to propel himself backwards towards the desk to retrieve the item, a playful smile adorning his face. He even started spinning himself a few times once stationary. Casey laughed at the childish act, having rarely, if ever, seen Leo act his age.

Leo gave the tool to the teen who smiled in gratitude before his head disappeared under the hood of the truck. They worked and watched in a comfortable silence until Casey deemed he'd done enough work using the wrench and unceremoniously threw it in the direction of the desk. It landed with a resounding clang at the side, thankfully missing all of Donnie's experiments.

The blue banded turtle frowned and gave an annoyed tsk, using the chair once again to retrieve and deposit the wrench in its rightful place.

"You could have put it back properly," Casey paid little attention to the gripe, instead favouring ducking his head under the hood of the truck again.

He looked up when they heard Mikey start screaming, a good indication that Raph was being as devious as usual. Leo rolled his eyes, used to the mayhem his brothers often caused during training.

"Aren't you gonna go break that up?" Casey asked the leader. Normally whenever any of the brothers, usually Mikey and Raph, fought, Leo would be the one to sort it out.

The blue banded turtle shook his head, "It's nothing serious, Raph's just messing around,"

"How can you tell?"

"After this long, you learn the difference between the screams," Leo chuckled at the confused look on the teens face. He sounded like a parent with its child, knowing what different cries were, "You need another tool?"

"Nah I'm good, I'm gonna scope out the undercarriage first," The blue banded turtle nodded, still feeling rather out of place.

Thinking he should probably go and watch the training session, despite Donnie's protests, Leo made to get up when his leg buckled underneath him. His cane was leaning against the trailer of the truck, meaning it was no help to him right now. Dropping helplessly to the floor, the turtle tried to use the chair to catch himself, remembering too late that it had wheels when it promptly rolled away from it. He was glaring at the offending chair when Casey hurried over.

"Oh man you alright Leo?" The turtle suppressed a moan of pain, gritting his teeth to bare it.

The teen helped the turtle to stand upright, leaning on his good leg, before quickly grabbing the chair and dragging it over again. Making sure to hold it in place, Casey watched as Leo lowered himself down, stretching his knee to try and get rid of the pain.

"Hang on I'll prop you against to the desk," he warned Leo and pulled the chair to rest with its back to the desk, giving it a firm foundation. The turtle slumped back, one hand rubbing just above his knee while the other rubbed his eyes.

"Thanks Casey," was mumbled just loud enough for the teen to hear it.

"No problem," He gave the turtle a small smile of empathy, which Leo seemed to appreciate. It hadn't been that long since the leader had woken and everyone was still treading carefully around him.

"How you coping with it?" He asked, trying to make small talk to fill the silence.

Leo sighed deeply before answering, "How am I coping with not being able to walk properly and being dependant on you guys for everything?" Casey winced mentally, maybe that wasn't the best thing to ask, "Bout as well as I can," Casey was pleasantly surprised at the honest answer. From what he'd heard from his brothers, Leo would often try to pass his injuries and feelings off as trivial so as not to worry his family.

The teen watched the turtle thoughtfully, trying to think of something that would make him feel better. An idea occurred to him that while may not have accomplished this, would at least make the leader feel less isolated.

"I know how you feel," He watched Leo for his reaction and sure enough there was a mixture of anger, sadness and concern in deep blue eyes. Anger at the idea that Casey knew what it was like to be practically an invalid, sadness at the reminder of being so helpless, but concern at the idea of something this bad having happened to the teen in the past.

"How?" Leo was almost glad that his brothers were not around to hear how weak his voice sounded. He was fighting the need to just break down and cry, had been since he'd woken up, and felt ashamed at the liquid forming in his eyes. The teen lay a hand on his shoulder. It was hard to imagine that he was in fact older than the leader, if only by a year.

"Hockey of course," He smiled when he said it, trying to get a bit of cheerfulness back into the turtle. Leo however, just looked even more confused.

"I've been playing hockey for years, did you think I got through without any injuries?"

The turtle smirked, "You mean other than the lack of teeth,"

Casey punched Leo's shoulder playfully. It was a recurring joke between him and Donnie and it seemed Leo did pay attention to their little spats.

"I remember one time when I was playing Pee Wee hockey," Casey plopped himself down on the desk as he began telling his story, Leo swivelling around to face him, "I was the best player on the team, like the best," Leo couldn't help but laugh softly at the teen,

"And it was the last game of the season against our arch rivals," He got down off the desk and started acting out his story, amusing Leo to no end.

"We'd just started and my team was playing great, but the other team was playing real dirty," He mimed a tackle that threw an opponent over the players back, "They knew I was the best player so they kept trying to take me out,"

"On a date?" Leo suggested playfully.

"They wish, I'm quite the catch," Casey waggled his eyebrows in a mock flirtatious manner and ruffled his hair to which Leo rolled his eyes, "Half way through the game one of players got a tackle in and I went down. Hard," Leo frowned at Casey's seriousness, a rare commodity for the teen. He knew that hockey was a rough sport, but didn't like to think of the boy getting hurt over something as trivial as a game. Sure he and his brothers had hurt themselves and each other whilst playing games, but it was very rarely intended. Even if harm was intended, it was never much.

"What happened?"

"I landed on my arm funny, ended up breaking my wrist," He twisted the wrist on his right arm to show the position it had fallen in as much as he could without actually harming himself.

Leo actually flinched when he saw this, knowing how painful injuries were when something wasn't broken. He looked down at his knee briefly, his form slumping forward, before saying, "I'm sorry Casey,"

The teen shouldn't have been surprised at the mournful tone in the turtle's voice. He wasn't blaming himself for the teen getting injured. No, more like he was feeling guilty for complaining about his own injury.

"It's not your fault you know," Leo looked up to see Casey half kneeling on the floor in front of him so their eyes were on the same level, "You didn't set out to get injured,"

"I should have fought harder or not even separated from Mikey and Donnie in the first place," He fought hard to keep tears from forming in his eyes again.

"No ones perfect Leo,"

"I know that, but I'm supposed to be..." He paused, trying to think of what to say.

"What perfect? Hate to break it to you Leo..."

"No not perfect," Leo interrupted the teens response, leaning back exasperated, "But I'm supposed to be good enough to protect my team, my family,"

Casey pondered for a moment before answering, "You did protect them," he said softly, laying a comforting hand on the turtles shoulder.

The blue banded turtle merely shook his head regretfully, "No I didn't,"He shrugged Casey's hand off him, he didn't feel worthy of comfort right now.

"Donnie got hurt because we were fighting, I should've known better than to let us lose momentum when being chased, Master Splinter is gone, I wasn't there to help and now we haven't got any idea if he's okay, and I put you guys in even more danger by getting ambushed and injured, slowing you down..."

He would have continued the list of the many,many ways in which he felt he'd failed his family if a hand hadn't smacked him across the face. It wasn't hard, but no one had ever dared to smack him like that regardless. Punches or kicks to the arms or legs or any other part of his body yeah. Even punches and kicks in the face wouldn't have surprised him. But a slap?

Casey didn't know whether to regret his action or feel satisfied that he'd gotten Leo to look absolutely speechless. In one of many instances of Raph complaining about his brothers, he had mentioned once or twice the eldest brother's affinity for Space Heroes and how he thought it was complete idiocy that Captain Ryan slapped his crew members across the face. It was a heat of the moment reaction, but he fought a losing fight trying to keep the smirk of his face.

"What was that for?" A mixture of anger, surprise and embarrassment. Yeah that would work. Leo tried to return the favour by pushing the teen to the ground, but he didn't put enough force behind it.

"You, you couldn't have known what would happen if you split from Mike and Don, from what I've heard you certainly wouldn't have been able to help Master Splinter and the ambush wasn't something you could help either,"

Leo opened his mouth to retort, but the words died in his throat. He'd had this conversation with his brothers, especially Raph, many times, but no matter how many times he was told otherwise, he was still convinced he had a hand in their defeat. Frankly though he was tired of trying to convince not only his brothers and the teens, but himself also, that he was responsible for their downfall in New York.

Every time Leo had come up with a reason for it being his fault, the others would simply dismiss it with logic. And though he did still feel responsible in some way, he knew that his brothers were right. When Donnie had asked him if he blamed the younger, he had immediately pounced to his younger brother's defence, which Don turned against him to defend his older brother.

Sighing tiredly, the blue cladded turtle slumped back against the chair, head hanging in defeat. Casey gave a comforting squeeze to the turtle's shoulder before reaching over to grab another tool out the box, walking back over to the truck.

Leo contemplated the teen in front of him. He definitely paid more attention and was more insightful than they gave him credit for. A genuine smile found its way onto Leo's lips.

"Thanks Casey,"

The teen shrugged, "What are bros for," He went back to the truck, the pair once again elapsing into a comfortable silence until a thought crossed Leo's mind. He called Leo a brother, which whilst not uncommon in their unusual little family, still bothered the turtle for some reason. It wasn't a bad feeling, but he still felt there was someone he was forgetting, something different about Casey and April. Then he remembered.

"Casey," The soft tone drew the teens attention. He stood from his bent position over the engine of the truck, an oily cloth wiping away the grime on his hands.

"What happened to your family?"

It was an innocent enough question, and Leo's brothers had in fact asked Casey the very same one over three months ago. Yet every time the teens thoughts went back to the city they lost, he couldn't help the tears that formed. Careful not to let the water fall, he turned around, offhandedly stating that he could not find them.

The blue banded turtle started to raise himself to go and comfort the teen, remembering just in time that his leg inhibited his ability to stand without the cane. The piece of wood was a bit far from his reach, still leaning against the back end of the truck, so he resorted once again to using the helpful wheels on the chair to go about his mission.

A gentle hand was placed on the teen's shoulder, the turtle giving an affectionate squeeze to get the teen to turn around and face him. He knew that Casey was trying to keep him the tough-guy act similar to what Raph did. But Leo didn't need any words. He'd dealt with Raph enough to know how prideful the teen might be. He offered his apologies and Casey gave a brief smile.

"Hey all this moping around isn't gonna fix the truck," The teen said, ruffling his hair a bit before turning back to the engine. Leo chuckled. Anything to get them to stop being sappy, but he was happy to oblige.

"Right Case," He wheeled himself back over to the toolbox on the desk, "What do you need next?"

They spent the next hour or so tossing tools back and forth. Whilst not quite as fun as working with Donnie, the aggressive banter did have a certain charm, the teen found that Leo wasn't a total stick in the mud. The leader made his own sarcastic remarks and he seemed to treat the teen similar to the way he treated Raph when they trained.

Through the small talk Casey learnt a great deal more about the blue banded turtle. Especially when the screams and yells of his brothers sounded through the barn. One time Leo did have to wheel over to the door of the barn and give a warning to his immediate younger and youngest brothers, who were in the middle of wrestling. Mikey failing miserably under Raph's strength.

Casey had to admit it was funny watching the two shrink under Leo's new found authority. His deeper voice and the family's acknowledgement of the blue cladded brother being not only the leader of the team, but the head of the clan in their fathers absence, seemed to afford him more respect from his family.

When training was finally over, the boys went about their own business. Donnie came back into the barn to return to his projects, Mikey went to start lunch with April and Raph took the rare opportunity to watch TV with no Mikey to hog the remote. Leo stayed with Casey and Donnie for a while until he felt he'd imposed on their company long enough.

Donnie had remained standing so he could keep using the chair, but once he'd wheeled over to grab his cane again he gave it back to its rightful owner.

"You sure Leo?"

"Yeah, I think I'm gonna go for a walk, stretch my legs a bit," Donnie looked dubiously at his older brother. He watched the eldest walk to the entrance before calling after him, "Don't go too far,"

Leo smiled, saying "Yes Mom," back and turning towards the forest. He didn't make it very far until his arms were wobbling on the cane. It never took much to tire him out lately and that really got on his nerves. Sighing dejectedly, he resigned to collapsing on the swing outside and just be grateful for being outside for a change. Since waking up a week ago he guessed he'd been outside in the gratifying fresh air maybe three times, and it was never for very long. Well, not counting the whole Creep incident. He made sure to stretch his legs every so often and did the exercises that Don had given him to do, which, after having spoken with Casey today, he realised that the teen had helped the younger turtle come up with.

Carefully, he brought his lame leg to lie on the swing in front of him, followed by his good leg and closed his dark blue eyes, the gentle breeze rocking the swing soothingly. The sun was hazy, but warm on his skin and the blue cladded turtle took great pleasure in basking like his original species did. Using an arm as a pillow against the wooden arm, the turtle tried to slip into a meditative state where he could relax. He succeeded in part. He definitely felt more relaxed than he had done in days even if he couldn't go as deep into the spiritual plane as he wanted to.

It was nice to meditate again. Sensing the presence of his family was a comforting feeling. If he concentrated harder perhaps he'd be able to ascertain their emotions, but he was struggling to focus today. He put that down to it being the first time he'd tried for a while. There was one spirit missing however. He tried to explore the spiritual plane deeper, searching for the reassuring, strong spirit of their father, but found himself distracted by the shouts coming from the farmhouse. Normally he'd be able to block them out, after all anyone who visited in their sewer home would know that it was rarely quiet, but when there was a loud crash Leo thought it best to find out what had happened.

Sighing contently, Leo hefted himself up with quiet groan and took the cane to walk to the farmhouse. When he opened the door he had to quickly duck to avoid an airborne object hitting him in the head. Ha! His ninja reflexes were still sharp too. He turned briefly to see a book lying at the bottom of the porch stairs before facing the scene in front of him.

Mikey was ducked down on the sofa, kneeling on the cushions, his head peeking ever so slightly over the back of the furniture, but he'd turned to face the doorway. Donnie, who had seemingly returned from the barn with Casey, was behind Raph, his hands outstretched. Clearly he was trying to stop his immediate older brother from throwing the book that had just gone over the sofa and past the blue banded turtle. Raph had one arm still in the position it was in when he threw the book, frozen in place. Casey and April were standing outside the kitchen door, both out of harm's way, though the former was once again fighting a losing battle not to laugh. Other than Casey, the rest of the occupants in the room wore a mixture of shock and guilt.

Smirking internally, but making sure to keep a stern face that Splinter would be proud of, Leo turned around to grab the book from outside before confidently striding into the room. The sound of the cane against the wood made an ominous thunking sound in the deathly quiet room and for once Leo was happy to be using it, if only to let his brothers stew a bit longer. He took his time inspecting the title of the book as he walked, but wasn't really interested in it. Placing the book on the table by the fire, Leo finally turned to address his family. They still wore the same looks, but Raph and Don had lowered their arms, Mikey had turned around fully to face his eldest brother and Casey now had his hands casually in the pockets of his jacket.

"Well, what happened?" Leo looked at Mikey, knowing that he be the easiest to crack.

"Nothing?" The youngest replied. Leo raised a brow and the turtle cracked, "It was Raph's fault!"

"My fault?!" The red cladded turtle cried, "You were the one being annoying!"

"Well Don wasn't exactly being quiet," the younger countered, earning a loud protest from the purple banded brother.

The three brothers started arguing again, their voices overlapping until one word could not be distinguished from the other. Leo turned to look at the two teens, Casey was still smirking and April had started giggling quietly at the brotherly spat. Leo sent them a mischievous smirk of his own before settling his stern look back.

Clearing his throat authoritatively and holding a hand up, Leo thought he'd done a good impression of Splinter, it certainly got them to go quiet.

"April, what happened?" He asked the red-headed teen who was still sniggering softly. Raph opened his mouth to give his explanation, but Leo cut him off, "Would you rather I ask Casey?" Raph promptly shut his mouth again. Leo turned inclined his head towards the teen, but kept his dark blue eyes on his brothers.

"They were fighting over the remote," She said simply, "Well Raph and Mikey were anyway,"

"Yeah it was awesome, the little sucker went all over the place," Casey commented helpfully.

Leo raised a brow again, best to get it to a neutral place before too much damage was done, "Then Don tried to take it from them," April continued her story. The purple banded brother sounded like he was a child being scolded trying to defend himself.

"I was trying to settle the dispute," He pouted, clearly embarrassed that his crush was telling tales to his older brother, "Or at least get it to repair it,"

"Repair it?" It was then he realised that Mikey had his hands behind his back, "Mikey," he said sternly and the younger brought his hands forward to reveal a remote that looked like it had caved in on itself. Well, so much for no damage.

Leo held out his hand to the youngest, the orange banded turtle sheepishly came forward and placed the remote in the eldest's outstretched hand, shuffling back to the sofa.

"How?" He started, but Raph didn't leave him waiting for an answer.

"This genius," he pointed to Casey, "Decided that he would use it as baseball practice," Leo whirled round to face the still smirking teen, silently demanding an explanation.

"Hey they were the ones that started throwing and flipping it around, I just stopped it,"

"And you didn't think to catch it with your hand and not the bat?" Donnie sounded agitated, but then again he normally was when it came to Casey.

Leo didn't let them start arguing again, "Alright, alright I get it," He looked at April to finish the story.

"Mikey snatched it up when it landed and dived over the sofa, and Raph well..."

"Threw the book," Leo finished for her. She nodded and Leo rolled his eyes, unsurprised at the display of anger from his immediate younger brother.

He threw the broken piece electronic to Don, "Don can you fix it?" He'd rather not live in a world where Mikey would be complaining about no TV unless absolutely necessary.

The purple banded brother scoffed, "Of course, the wiring looks like it's still in tact, just need to replace the plastic and make sure everything is aligned,"

Leo nodded, "Good, but no rush,"

"No rush?" Mikey sounded panicked, "But Crognard the Barbarian is on later, gotta have it in time for that,"

Leo glared at the youngest. "Oh really?" Mikey shrunk a little under the gaze, but otherwise nodded, "Hmm, well you won't be watching it for a few nights,"

"What?!"

"You can find something else to entertain yourself for a while," Leo continued, "Don when you've fixed it give it to me please," Donnie nodded and set off to the barn with the remote in hand.

"No!" The youngest whined. Raph chuckled darkly in the background.

"I don't know why your laughing Raph, you're not watching it either," Raph stopped and glared at his elder.

"What, why? Mikey started it,"

"I don't care who started it, I'm finishing it," He heard Casey sniggering somewhere to his left, he'd deal with him in a moment, "You can help me and April out tonight in the attic, or would you rather read the book?" Leo nodded to the one of the table the younger had chucked earlier. Raph huffed, but did not protest.

"And you," Leo turned back to Casey, "You can put your stuff away in your room," He pointed to the bat that was slung across the teens shoulders sideways and then to the other sticks on the floor, "I don't want to see them out unless you're training or it's an emergency,"

"Wait what?" The smirk finally dropped off his face.

"Throwing something is one thing, but you could of really hurt someone by using a bat, not only by batting away the remote, but the room is small and the bat could have hit someone," The teen tried to protest, but April elbowed him in the ribs. He grumpily snatched up his stuff and stomped off to put them away.

Leo went off to the kitchen with April to make himself a nice cup of tea before they started lunch, leaving Raph and Mikey in the living room when Casey came back down. He was still grumbling something about Leo when he collapsed on the sofa next to Raph.

The red cladded turtle smirked, clasping the teen on the shoulder, "Take it as a compliment Case,"

"Yeah, if he tells ya off, it means he's treating ya like one of the family dude," Mikey was smiling, putting the book back where it was supposed to go.

"Yeah, the more he bugs ya, the more he cares, as annoying as it is,"

Casey smirked back. After seeing how protective the eldest brother was over his family he knew it was a compliment. Whilst not as close to Leo as the others, he definitely had a lot of respect for the guy. Trying to keep a large fairly together through traumatic events when he himself was trying not to fall apart had to be hard.

The teen thought about his family back in New York. His dad worked a lot and his sister rarely wanted to know her elder brother, preferring to keep to herself and her friends. He still missed them dearly, but his friends made him feel like family too. Sure Don could be a pain, but the others were cool. Besides he'd been able to hit on April a whole lot more since they lived in the same house.

Right now he was content with his extended family. He seemed to have more in common with them anyway and he very much looked forward to the adventures they would take together.

* * *

**In case no one can figure it out, the reason Raph doesn't want Leo to ask Casey what happened with the remote is because ****although Casey might have lied for them****, ****L****e****o would know, I mean he is Leo after all! Besides, even if Casey did tell the truth, he probably wouldn't have mentioned his part... Better to have Casey in trouble as well!**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it :) ****I think Casey is starting to become part of the family, so I thought it was appropriate :)**

**My next TMNT story that I'm going to write will be with Leo and April, a sisterly fic :) **


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